PILGRIM STATION: Tweet heats up debate over plant safety

Wednesday

Feb 11, 2015 at 6:00 AM

Did Pilgrim come within minutes of sounding its sirens during the recent blizzard, dubbed Juno, or was it just a matter of tempers nearing the boiling point in the week after the nuclear power plant shut down at the peak of the historic storm?

By Frank Mandfmand@wickedlocal.com

PLYMOUTH – Did Pilgrim come within minutes of sounding its sirens during the recent blizzard, dubbed Juno, or was it just a matter of tempers nearing the boiling point in the week after the nuclear power plant shut down at the peak of the historic storm?

“These claims are completely unfounded and irresponsible,” Burm later wrote in a statement. “They have absolutely no basis in fact. The shutdown occurred safely as plant operators were reducing power in response to the onset of a historic storm. Plant conditions were stable and there was never any threat at all to the safety of plant workers or the public.”

Burm’s response led to a short but passionate exchange of tweets, with Sheehan posting that “a spokesperson for Entergy lacks any credibility.”

But the NRC weighed in shortly thereafter backing Burm, commenting both on the reports of anonymous insiders and the condition of the plant during Juno.

“We received similar comments on our blog,” NRC Public Affairs Office Neil Sheehan said. “We have seen nothing that would have qualified as a crisis during the shutdown.”

Its confidence in the safety of the plant was backed up by its approval for the reactor to be restarted last Saturday, Feb. 7.

But potentially complicating the matter is a new report saying that along with the loss of power and the failure of other noncritical systems during Juno, the plant also experienced a loss of “instrument air.”

Instrument air, according to the NRC, is a non-safety-related system used to provide control air to a number of valves and instruments in the plant. If those controls are not working, the plant has to rely on a person with their eyes on the actual conditions.

Burm acknowledges that the plant did not report this occurrence on a timely basis. The report Pilgrim should have filed, called a 5072 Report, was issued Feb. 5, nine days after the scram, or shutdown. But Burm said the loss of instrument air did not impact safety.

"During winter storm Juno, operators observed that water level indicators at the plant water intake were non-functional. Actual sea water levels at the intake bay did not rise above typical levels at any time during the storm,” Burm said. “Although the facility did not immediately report the issue with the water level indicators, equipment reliability was never challenged and the plant remained safe and in stable condition."

The NRC’s Neil Sheehan backed up Burm's statement.

“In general, a loss of instrument air can complicate plant operators’ response to an event,” Neil Sheehan said, “but the plant can be - and was - safely shut down without it.”

At Pilgrim, Neil Sheehan explained, “instrument air feeds level instrument bubblers used to measure the sea water intake bay level. These instruments are used by operators to assess Emergency Action Levels."

It was the NRC that identified the issue, during the inspection that followed the Juno scram.

"During our Special Inspection, the NRC identified that the level instruments were not functional once instrument air was lost.” Entergy then submitted an Event Notification on the issue.

“During the storm, the company had an operator outside in the sea water intake structure, and water levels never rose to a level that would have challenged any plant equipment,” Neil Sheehan added. “In addition, our review of tidal conditions, including worst-case forecast storm surge, determined that intake bay levels never actually exceeded an Emergency Action Level, nor were the water levels close to exceeding an Emergency Action Level.”

Was this instrument failure the basis for the allegations that the plant had come close to a catastrophic failure during the storm, and that it was within minutes of sounding its sirens?

The Old Colony was unable to identify the “insider” who supposedly made the claim that Pilgrim had come close to meltdown and was within minutes of calling for evacuations.

When EcoLaw’s Meg Sheehan, who tweeted the allegation after, she says, having communicated with this “insider,” was asked why the NRC would have allowed the plant to restart if there were systemic issues and what the insider knows that the NRC does not, she said she didn't want to “debate” the issue.

She did, however, offer a personal comment.

“Since the 1970s, I have been told by many friends and acquaintances many things about what goes on inside Pilgrim,” Meg Sheehan said. “This is just one more thing I’ve heard, and happen to believe.

“During Juno I stayed with my elderly parents who live 8 miles from Pilgrim to make sure they were OK,” Sheehan added. “After what happened at Pilgrim, I realize acutely the danger we are all in.”

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